A new year, another inevitable post about American Idol, and references to the parade of eliminated Asian American Idol contestants. But wait, could this season be different? This year we have a “rebooted” American Idol where snarky British judges have been replaced by Jennifer Lopez and a crazy rocker dude mellowed out with age and the side effects of drugs from the 80s. Oh, and our token Asian contestant, Thia Megia. Find out more, after the jump.
These kids, they’re getting more savvier with their self-promotion these days. You see, the Idol I watched in 2002 — where people living in obscurity suddenly become megastars by winning a TV show — isn’t the Idol of 2010; they now have YouTube channels of kids singing in their bedrooms to creepy elderly gentlemen on the Internet and they try out for other similarly structured talent shows like, say, America’s Got Talent. Thia has done both, uploading dozens of now-deleted songs to her YouTube channel (Boo, FOX contracts!) and was an AGT semi-finalist in 2009.
Self-promoting PR blitz aside, Thia has one of the better voices in the competition, and is the strongest Asian American contestant to date on the show. That said, she’s kinda lacking in the whole memorable thing to go all the way besides being “that Asian girl” — maybe she could put a flower in her hair or warble a Brian McKnight song or something.
What do you think? How far will she go on Idol?
